Conception and Being

The words of Our Lady at Lourdes are mysterious in their grammar: "I am the Immaculate Conception". Why did she not say "I am the woman conceived immaculate"?  The obvious answer is the miraculous message she wished to impart through St Bernadette, the confirmation of the traditional doctrine. However, perhaps there is another dimension to this: leaving aside the immaculateness of Our Lady, we can apply her statement to ourselves, viz. "I am a conception". This strange and unfamiliar phrase says something profound on the question of the personhood of each of us from the first moment of our being: at conception, my being begins. I as a subject am defined in that moment. My status as a human being is defined in that act of conception. It is the ever-present ground of my being. I am neither an object nor an angel; I am a conception. My being originates in that procreative act of love between my parents; my being, my humanity exist forever within a particular local network in the great spreading web of the human family. 

Consider then too the damage wrought to the identity of those whose conception is not within love, not within the natural embrace ordained by God. Consider the violence done to their souls. Consider how far removed this is from God's plan as reaffirmed through the words of Our Lady at Lourdes. Mary, save us from this destructive rebellion against God.